Becoming a Doctor: Psychiatry with Dr. Emil Coccaro

Dr. Ogan Gurel interviews Dr. Emil Coccaro (Chairman & Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Chicago) about the specialty of psychiatry and some general advice on becoming a doctor.

For MCAT prep, see http://www.gunnertraining.com/programs/premed

For Dr. Coccaro's update on intermittent explosive disorder (aimed at a physician audience) see the 1st half of the InTimeTV Insights in Medicine internet TV talk show episode "Intermittent Explosive Disorder" at:

mms://68.251.204.75/video/intimetv/iim020.wmv

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Psychiatry
• Emil
• Coccaro
• Preparing
• serotonin
• career
• medicine
• InTimeTV
• Future
• Doctor
• University
• of
• Chicago
• UChicago
• Ogan
• Gurel
• pre-med
• premed

[heylookitssophia]

Why are so many people eager to dismiss psychiatry as "pseudo science"... because Tom Cruise says so? Just because you're fortunate enough not to experience this doesn't mean it doesn't exist. And whose opinions are you going to trust-- that of uneducated, prejudiced protesters or of highly qualified medical doctors? They don't go through 8 years of college and 4+ years of residency just to be "pill pushers." Thanks to psychiatry, millions of people are able to live normal, healthy lives.

[exbronco1980]

@heylookitssophia psychiatry is pseudo science. they make claims and offer no proof to back those claims up. there is no test to prove what kind of "chemical imbalance" someone has, or prove there is a chemical imbalance at all. psychiatry is just speculation and subjectivity.

[AlirezaBehzadnia]

@AlirezaBehzadnia no offense though : ) it might be different in where you live :)

[AlirezaBehzadnia]

@detaflyer111 i thought one of the pre-requirmens for all the med students is to not have any mental disorders ? how come you're bipolar and a med student ? : S

[IgorSlukvinJr]

@detaflyer111 So were you able to get licensed to practice medicine with your diagnosis of bipolar?

[scottyb453]

@aahatch Psychiatry is easy to criticize because it has done a lot of harm. And yes, it is in its infancy as is understanding mental illness. That is why it should not oversell its credentials. There are no tests like taking blood but just the DSM. Under their current framework in America they are doing immensely more harm than good. They hand out pills like candy. The serotonin theory for depression is a gross over simplification. This is def a dark point in psychiatry. Do some research.

[aahatch]

@scottyb453 im just a 17yr old, who just have had an intrest in possibly becoming a psychiatrist, and just learning psychology and biology. from what i have learnt i do believe psychology has still much to learn, and in any learning phase faults are to be made to learn from, people who do medical school and become psychiatrists want to help people, it is very easy to critizise without looking at the amount of people it has saved.

[scottyb453]

@aahatch Trying to figure out the cause and origin of psychological disorders is a noble endeavor and i am not debating that. Nevertheless American psychiatry has severely lost its way and has become an arm of big pharma. Just the other day the Harvard doctors so instrumental in changing the diagnosing criteria for childhood bipolar were all receiving around 1 mil from pharma. On top of the fact that your history is a nightmare: Ect, lobotmoy, insulin coma therapy. Your profession has hurt me.

[aahatch]

@scottyb453 so you believe psychiatry, an institution dedicated in helping the people who are ignored by society is pointless...psychological disorders are just as bad as phsiological disorders, and an insitution which dedicates itself to helping these people shouldnt be scrutinized by ignorance, i think if you went to med school and did a degree in neurobiology you will see how important it is

[winstono75]

It sounds like psychiatry has made progress, but that is not so. They are overemphasizing biology, thus rendering people helpless to do anything except to take their medicines as prescribed. Psychiatry is feeding off of people's unhappiness without offering anything genuinely helpful.

[Nu13th]

@MrToothgrinder If the argument were applied to oil corporations or tobacco corporations etc, most would agree that the bottom line is making the most money possible and screw anyone who stands in the way. But somehow folks believe the pharmaceutical corporations are well intended. That reasoning escapes me. Why should these pharma-corporations be concerned with anything but the bottom line? Being nice is just not how a corporation survives. So sad for the mentally ill.